One thing molecules do particularly well at the
nanoscale is to recognize certain target molecules. Chemical
reactions occur with clock-work regularity and specificity that
cannot be matched. For many sensor applications, it appears
that atoms don’t wear out. In our research in this area,
we are trying to identify a number of promising sensor systems
that can be exploited. We have designed, built and tested a
number of transducers that give an electronic or optical signal
related to nano-scale binding events. This work is highly collaborative
and is performed under Purdue’s Center for Sensing Science
and Technology.